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Show oo STUDYING NEW ANGLES OF WAR. Modern warfare calls for someihing more than a response to military commands, com-mands, as the American soldiers in France are discovering. One of the first lessonB given the troops on this side of the ocean is a practical demonstration of the necessity of the gas mask. The men are put through a "gas house" where there is deadly vapor, several times stronger than could possibly be maintained main-tained in an open n-.r attack. The purpose is two-fold. One is to reassure reas-sure the Americans that a gas attack is harmless, when' properly guarded against. The other is to impress the men with -the necessity of being prepared pre-pared at all times to meet a gas wave. The cost of carelessness is shown. The gas mask must be kept where it can be Instantly adjusted to the face, and a fit must be assured, as the gas penetrates every small aperture, attacking at-tacking the eyes and mouth. After being instructed in bomb throwing, gas mask adjustments, trench digging, liquid fire and the barrage, bar-rage, our soldiers arc mane ready for the first line. An officer in the Utah artillery, speaking of the barrage fire, said a percentage of the troops advancing under un-der the protection of the screen of shells were killed by the misplaced shots of their own artillery, but this risk had to be faced because the barrage, bar-rage, notwithstanding the accidental casualties, often saved- an attacking force from annihilation. This is part of the new warfare which American boys will encounter. Then there is the massed formation. Count Moncheur informed an artillery officer in Ogden that it was found necessary in making a drive against a strongly fortified position to send the men over the top of the trenches in mass formation and at attention, the troops firing from the hip instead of the shoulder. The slaughter in a frontal attack Is so unnerving that a skirmish line oannot hold up under the shock. This explains why the Germans have persisted in solid formation, for-mation, although all American military mili-tary authorities -said the practice was suicidal. Whother our boys havo the nerve to do what neither the Germans nor the allies have done remains to bo seen. When Major Kneass, George Ward-law Ward-law and other Utah battery men wore In the Philippines they employed j nothing but direct fire. When the major gets in the war zone, he now knows that none of his island experience exper-ience In gunnery will be of much service, ser-vice, In fact Battery B Is now being trained to apply the indirect fire, with its guns so screened from the enemy that even the flame from the discharge dis-charge Is hidden. |